


To Bear My Stories

by CoopPenny



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Character Death, Fluff and Humor, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, M/M, Maria Stark's Good Parenting, Music, Poor Tony, Post-Avengers (2012), Random & Short, Slow Romance, Tattooed Tony, Tattoos, Tony-centric, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 14:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10515597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoopPenny/pseuds/CoopPenny
Summary: It started with Tony and Rhodey’s crazy, drunken night out…





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! This is just a pointless one-shot and it’s just a random thing that I thought up in my French class instead of doing what I was meant to be doing…  
> Anyway! Hope you enjoy it!

When Tony Stark got his first tattoo, he was young and rebellious. His dad had often told Tony about the air-headed imbeciles that got tattoos, saying that it was something your older self would live to regret and was tacky in any business man’s opinion. In a stage of drunken rebellious passion, Tony dragged his college roommate, James Rhodes (or Rhodey, RhodeyBear, Bubalicious, as Tony sometimes called him) to the tattoo parlour and payed the man five hundred dollars extra as to not squeal to the press about it.

Across his shoulder blades, the tail curling slightly over to his collar bone, the head roaring out in rebellion, sharp teeth bared and threatening, was a huge scaled dragon. The detail on it was astounding and in his drunken addled mind, Tony fell in love with what it represented. On his back, the claws were bared and black, as well as most of it’s body with a twisted underbelly of dark red, the eyes gleaming gold against the dark background and gold brushing over the fins.

Rhodey, on the other hand, got an extremely large patriotic eagle, with it’s feathers in the colours of the American flag, tattooed on his chest, over his heart. When they exited the parlour, Rhodey was drunkenly singing about America and joining the army; Tony only wished he had his camera.

Later, the next day, early in the afternoon, Tony was kicked out of bed, sat down in the too bright living space of hid dorm room and was forced to listen to Rhodey rant and rave about his new body art and complaining that it hurt. Tony couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous the bird looked and regretted his laughter a second later when Rhodey punched him in his arm, hard… Tony wasn’t happy with the bruise he left…

~_~_~_~_~

 

A year passed after his first tattoo and Tony had yet to see a day to regret the decision. The dragon looked cool and when he showed the detailed art to Jarvis, on his summer break back at the mansion, he damn near had a heart attack! Howard never found out about it and Tony was pleased that he found a great tattoo artist that had kept his new ink a secret instead of shouting it out to the world and backstabbing him. Tony found great joy in telling no one about his new body addition. It became a secret of his very own.

However, the love of his new tattoo was greatly overshadowed the year that his parents and Jarvis died in a devastating car crash…

Arriving back at his house, Tony felt a bone deep chill in the mansion. The place was isolated after his parents funeral as Tony had sent the employees to different millionaires with mansions, making sure they had somewhere to go before he packed up the place completely. Rhodes was waiting outside, Tony having asked him to stop by the mansion and going on auto-pilot as he stepped out of the car and walked through the wide halls.

He looked down the stairs, seeing ghost memories of Jarvis running after him with a neat button down shirt as Tony slid down the banister to try and get away from the Brit. Looking towards the labs, Tony couldn’t help a grim, slightly bitter feeling bloom in his chest. ‘The Forbidden Hallway’ Tony had once called it, many memories of being dragged out of the labs by his hair, tears streaming down his face as Howard yelled about invading his space and Tony crying like a baby despite only being five years old at the time… He sighed as he walked passed the kitchen, remembering Jarvis putting him on top of the countertop as he delicately placed a plaster over Tony’s bleeding hand or when they cooked brownies and cookies together, his mother often joining in on the baking.

The furthest room in the house was a music room, a grand piano polished and standing proud in the middle of the room, guitars lining the walls and instruments of all kinds hanging around it. Carefully, Tony turned on the lights, the natural light streaming from the windows getting darker and darker by the second. Tony and his Mother, Maria, had spent many hours behind the grand piano, Maria attempting to teach her son about the fine, delicate music the instrument could make. Hours and hours spent together until he could play on the piece effortlessly. The music stand still had the sheet music of Maria’s favourite song. The song itself was slow and beautiful, building up to powerful notes before ending as low as it started.

Silently, Tony placed his fingers on the correct keys and he let his muscle memory take over as he let the sound, and the memories along with it, fill his ears. He didn’t even realise he was crying until he’d finished and a warm body beside him gently brushed the heated tears from his face.

Turning to the person, Tony wasn’t surprised to find his best friend sitting next to him, tears in his own eyes before he wrapped Tony in a fierce hug. Murmuring sweet nothings as he brushed his fingers through Tony’s hair and let the smaller man harshly cry into his shoulder, grief and longing taking over Tony’s being for the first time since the funeral...

In truth, Tony had loved his mother. She wasn’t around often, due to her charitable heart, but when she was with him she spent as much time with him as humanly possible, teaching him the different languages that she had picked up in her travels and teaching him to dance and sing, as well as play as many instruments as possible. She’d loved everything about her family before Howard and she loved her country, talking about the green hills and her Grandma Rosella as well as all the naughty things she did as a child. With almost crippling grief, Tony realised that he would never hear or see her again…

Many weeks passed, if not months, after the funeral, Tony was back at college and attempting to get his normal life back on track. Tony had gotten used to being alone after a while and, he had to get used to having no one to call on the weekend to check-in (he’d found himself picking up the phone many times and dialling Jarvis’ number half way through before he remembered he wasn’t there anymore).

In a fit of boredom, Tony found himself walking through the streets around his college, wanting to get out of his room and away from the pitying glances of his teachers and fellow students. Half an hour later, he found himself stopping in shock as he looked at the familiar neon sign and the scratched door on the corner of the street. Walking in, Tony only confirmed his thoughts further when he found everything exactly how he had pictured it. He’d found the tattoo parlour that he’d gotten his dragon done in! Although, he never realised how far away from the college it was…

Going to the front desk, Tony gave the extensively tattooed woman a polite smile before he opened his mouth to make a request.

Hours later, Tony walked out of the parlour once again, paying a hundred tip to the woman, with a small bandage taped high on the right side of his ribs. Years to come, Tony could never stop the fond smile from forming whenever he caught sight of his mother’s favourite verse in her favourite song, the notes done perfectly and the lines straight and steady, a sheet of music printed onto his skin in memory of his mother.

~_~_~_~_~

 

For his third, fourth, fifth and sixth tattoo, it was based around the same thing and taking place over the course of five years. In that time, Tony had taken over his father’s company, gained a new friend and PA, as well as make a scene at an airport when Rhodey had to leave him to go on duty. Tony had also befriended the guy that had done all his tattoos so far, Who’s name was Deric. The man had also agreed to keep the tattoos a secret and told Tony to fly him in or something whenever he wanted a new ink.

The third one was a small section of coding for his first AI, DUM-E. He’d searched through the bot’s code and had found the clumsy part of his code. However, instead of rewriting the code, like Tony had intended, he kept the code and got it tattooed on his left calf. The entirety of the code would have made zero sense to a normal person, even Deric had given him a weird look before shrugging and doing what he was paid for, but to Tony, it was the written personality of his first child.

The fourth tattoo was done only a year later when he’d created U, DUM-E’s brother. Tony had copied U’s coded personality, that he had developed in the past couple of days. Tony could only smile fondly when U acted more mature than DUM-E nearly all the time. He’d gotten out a full belly laugh when DUM-E had called U’s personality as 'stuck up’ in morse code. The code was tattooed onto his right thigh.

Butterfingers’ code was his fifth tattoo, her general personality of being frantic and always there, persistent and sometimes nagging Tony to do certain things and work safety (Tony often found himself wishing that he didn’t teach the bot morse code to communicate with him). Butterfingers was his first girl after his two little boys and Tony couldn’t be prouder of his accomplishments and their’s. Butterfingers’ code on his lower ribs, opposite the tattooed sheet music.

JARVIS, named after his surrogate father, was his longest code yet and acted as a concerned son towards Tony; Tony often felt like he was the child instead of JARVIS. JARVIS didn’t have a physical form but he was allover the house, monitoring and creating endless files for Tony to fill up with his sleep-deprived invention ideas as well as his ideas in general. JARVIS was a sassy son of a bitch and Tony couldn’t help but laugh that, in a couple of days, JARVIS had developed a heavy amount of sarcasm and wit (just like his dad). The code of his youngest son’s sassiness printed onto the joint of his shoulder and neck, part of the steams of code going down his chest a little.

When Rhodey came back for a short leave, he nearly fainted when he saw all the bots roaming about, tapping or clicking a ‘hello’ to Rhodes. JARVIS ended up scaring the living daylights out of the soldier when he spoke from the ceiling. The man turned his terror wide eyes to Tony, silently asking ‘what the fuck’, his eyes also lingering on JARVIS’ coding that was peaking out from his low neck top.

Tony could only shrug with a simple, “I’ve been a little busy.” before sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and a movie.

A small smirk twitched at the billionaire’s lips as he heard his old college roomy sigh deeply before settling down close to Tony on the old sofa they’d had since MIT and stealing a handful of popcorn form the bowl.

~_~_~_~_~

 

Through the years, Tony got steadily more famous and people become desperate enough to photoshop him topless and at a beach party to get out a story about him. Tony had never bothered to correct the pictures and he could only laugh at how crude the making was and that everyone fell for it.

In a few years, Tony had gotten two more tattoos mixed in with all the rest. He gained a tattoo of a circuit, the flow of electricity going from his left shoulder and fading into his forearm. H then got a set of gears, grey and appearing to be covered in dirt, drawn on the side of his right knee, like the gears were an imitation of his actual leg. The tattoos displaying his love for technology and mechanics.

When Rhodey came to visit, he had asked Tony why he had kept them all secret and hidden from the public. Tony had even started to apply make-up to his tattoos whenever his clothing didn’t hide them enough to his liking.

“I think it’s because I’m tired of being exposed…” Tony started after a minute of thoughtful silence, “I’ve been in the lime light for most of my life and they’ve decided to record nearly every move and aspect of my life. It feels raw and tiring, having to keep an image, no matter how fake it is, all because if the real me went out there, I’d get shredded to bits and left for dead… But my tattoos, my passions and memories, it’s all me and I want to keep that to myself and the people I love.”

After he’d finished, he gave a small smile to Rhodey who was frozen in place, probably not expecting Tony’s in-depth attitude towards his tattoos. A second later, the man surged forward, wrapping his arms around Tony as he smashed their lips together, in a hard and messy kiss. When the man pulled away, he looked like he was about to leg it out of the house so, thinking quickly, Tony stepped forward and pressed his own lips lightly into Rhodey’s, chaste and timid.

When he stepped back, opening eyes that he didn’t know he’d closed, Tony was faced with a blushing red Rhodey with a bright smile on his face as he looked at Tony with loving eyes. For the rest of the night, they cuddled up on the sofa together and watched a Star Trek marathon, talking throughout the film about some of the scenes and characters.

~_~_~_~_~

 

Tony was proud to say that James had popped the question to Tony five years later after they started to officially date. His next tattoo, as well as Rhodey’s last, was of twin wedding bands around their fingers, both of them having each other’s vows written in fancy italics on the backs of their left hands.

The both of them could honestly say that it was the best days of their lives with a small venue of a few family and friends.

It was perfect and Tony couldn’t imagine being married to anyone else…

~_~_~_~_~

 

Another tattoo he got was when he’d just completed his first flying test of his modified suit of armour. It wasn’t the best of flights and he’d bruised a rib or two in landing through his ceiling.

His experience in the caves had him up every night, crying and screaming, Rhodey soothing his back and trying to comfort him when Tony cried and screamed loud enough to wake him up from his sleep. Not wanting to keep his beloved husband sleep deprived, Tony found that the problem was that he didn’t feel safe in his own home anymore so he got to work on the Mark II, something to protect him and James whenever he needed it to.

It was a wonderful piece of machinery and Tony couldn’t help his growing excitement towards the making of his suit and with Rhodey being called back out, he wasn’t there to be suspicious whenever Tony drop off from the face of the Earth for days on end… However, he really should have known that James would send Pepper in to spy on him and see if he was getting enough sleep and eating well.

Anyway, he was getting a little ahead of himself…

After the first (sort of) successful flight session, Tony called Deric to come over and do another tattoo for him. Tony would forever be happy with the twin white feathers circled around his ankles.

~_~_~_~_~

 

The last tattoo that Tony got Deric to do was a few weeks after Obie’s death and the fiasco with the ‘I am Iron Man’ thing with the press. Tony was amused to say that Deric was gushing over the fact that Tony was practically a superhero!

On his right hand, Tony got the image of the first stages of his repulsers that he had created in his lab, a blue disk in the middle with wires coming from it and the rest of the forearm encased in the image of metal and wires.

He was proud of his creation and once it was done, his husband kissed him on the lips and hugged him tightly, whispering that it was all over and that they didn’t have to worry, didn’t have to hide anymore, their left hands joining together.

A week later, Tony sent the press into another frenzy that Tony had been married to Rhodey for years, that he’d only ever done five different people in his life and he never accepted the Playboy title.

They were happy and things were looking up…

~_~_~_~_~

 

It had been a year since the Battle of New York and all the Avengers had decided to set up base in Tony’s tower. It was awkward at first and they didn’t really trust or like one another, Tony had moaned to Rhodey numerous times about the Stick-up-his-ass Captain, but that had changed further into their stay and they started to get used to one another. Movie nights, team dinners and video games, as well as training as a team, strengthened their bond and Tony found himself liking the people even more - he even liked Natasha a little more than before!

As Tony had just gotten back from his four hour long meeting with the Board (the bunch of old bats!), forced to go after being threatened by Pepper, he was tried and frankly upset. He’d woken up that day full of happiness and content, excited about finally getting his Rhodey back for a few weeks, but it soon dissipated when he was kidnapped, fought into a stream-pressed suit, and shoved into a meeting that Tony had every intention on skipping that day…

Getting back to the Tower, Tony stepped through the elevator doors, loosening his light blue tie as he did so, onto the communal floor. He would forever deny that he actually froze for a few seconds as his brain went into TOTAL MELT-DOWN mode. Standing in the large living room was Clint and Steve, shirtless and showing off their tattoos that was dotted around their bodies. Steve had an army logo on his arm along with his identification number while Clint had a selection of random tattoos, arrows and a bow on his shoulder, a tiger on his right pectoral and his own identification number scrawled low across his hip.

When he walked in, they both stopped and looked to Tony. It was just a few seconds of staring between the two parties when Tony pinched his brow and sighed. Deciding to completely ignore them for the time being, Tony walked into the open kitchen and made himself quick cup of coffee. He then relished in the taste of piping hot coffee, uncaring that it burnt his tongue a little. It was only then that he opened his eyes and turned to the still silent men who were intent on just staring at him.

“What are you doing?” Tony finally deadpanned as he turned to face the duo fully.

“Showing off tattoos. You can’t be apart of it because you don’t have any!” Clint taunted, grinning with mirth shining in his eyes as he childishly stuck his tongue out.

“How’d you figure that?” Tony asked with a raise of his eye brow and a growing smirk hidden behind his steaming mug.

Clint and Steve looked at one another before they looked back at him, “I never thought you were one to get tattoos Tony…” Steve trailed off contemplating. Clint, however, was frowning in confusion before he voiced it to Tony, “I’ve seen photos of you shirtless, and pants-less by the way, and I’ve never seen a tattoo.”

Taking another drag of coffee, Tony only answered with a simple, “Photoshop.”

Silence filled the room once more and Tony could see that the both of them didn’t believe that he had any tattoos on him whatsoever.

Gently putting down his coffee, Tony washed his hands of the make-up that was there and took off his shirt before stopping for a second, seeming to think about something, his trousers following soon after. Lifting his arms wide, Tony slowly turned around to show off his dragon sitting proudly along his shoulders.

The two could only stare stupefied at the sight of Tony’s skin, mouths open and Steve getting steadily redder as he continues to stare.

Picking up his clothes and coffee, Tony slide passed the two men and towards the elevator. However, he instantly dropped them, barely wincing at the loud smash of his mug as he saw the elevator doors opening to slowly reveal a tired Rhodey. In his excitement, Tony jumped on his husband, leaving the man no other option than to catch him,  and kissed him senseless.

Later on they would both laugh at the recording of Clint and Steve’s faces when Tony jumped Rhodey in the elevator. Their expressions a mix of confusion and shock towards Tony’s tattoos and his reaction the second he saw James.

Laughing at the screen, Tony reached across the covers of their bed and brushed his thumb over James’ tattooed wedding ring, his actions gentle and caring. Rhodey then leaned over and kissed his husband’s hand, both of them looking at one another. They didn’t even need to speak as their eyes looked upon one another like they were the only thing worth living for… It didn’t last long…

“I still think your eagle is hilarious.”

“Shut up…”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Finished! I just really wanted to write about Tony getting tattoos for some reason so I did…
> 
> So… Hope it was to your liking! Bye!


End file.
